2 years of Dennis!

[iceman]

Just noticed that Dennis has been a member for 2 years today! (well, yesterday).

Congrats Dennis!

Your contributions to IceInSpace have been wide and varied, always helpful and thoughtful. Your knowledge and honesty is very much appreciated by myself and i'm sure the whole community.

:bowdown:

You are a true gentleman I hope to meet you one day soon.

Apologies to others whose 2nd birthday I missed, I wasn't intentionally looking and just stumbled across Dennis'. :)

[h0ughy]

2 years, Well Big "D" you have produced some world class stuff and read on IIS some ,well, interesting replies and posts!! Here is a toast :cheers: to you and your panache you bestow to the site:whistle: :thumbsup: ;)

[[1ponders]]

Wow, it seems like only yesterday, that my G11 and Dennis were celebrating Dennis' first birthday at Duckadang. How time flies :lol:

Great to have you a part of our community mate and thanks for all your help and humour.

[RB]

Always the Gentleman, with helpful advice and praise whenever it's needed.
Your wonderful images and wonderful explanations have graced the IIS pages and have made all of us feel privileged to know you.

Well done my friend !

Andrew

[Dennis]

Wow – thanks Mike and the IIS gang, yet another birthday eh! Does that mean that I’ll be getting older twice as fast now!

We’ve been away for a few days, camping at O’Reilly’s (http://www.oreillys.com.au/) in the Lamington National park and returned last night to over 7 pages of IIS posts!

The camping holiday was just fantastic. After a couple of days, the peace and tranquillity of the camp site was shattered by the arrival of a school group, introducing an air of tension at the camp site, as most of the campers were outdoors people looking for the peace an quiet of the rain forest, finding the noise and bedlam of the city in the form of the Year 12’s a little unwelcome.

We had the WO 80mm F7 EDII with us and I set it up and invited everyone to come over and look at Venus, Saturn and later on, an almost full Moon. Most of the kids were kind of acting a little cool; “yeah, okay, we’ll have a look, I’m sure it will be boring, but we’ll humour him as the teachers are saying we should have a look”.

Well, the awkward atmosphere just evaporated as everyone was gob smacked by seeing the phase of Venus, the rings of Saturn and the craters on the Moon. Saturn in particular drew gasps of wonder and amazement from everyone. All who looked were incredibly grateful and expressed wonderment at how much could be seen with such a modest ‘scope.

The next day, the tension had gone and everyone seemed to have more tolerance and understanding of each other. The students in particular were more considerate of the needs of the other campers. It was delightful to see how the community was transformed by the shared experience of just looking up at the wonders of the night sky.

Cheers

Dennis

[Gargoyle_Steve]

Dennis you are most definitely a gentleman and a scholar, but I'm starting to think you can also walk on water when the need arises!
:prey2:


Great to hear that your love of astronomy has spread to others yet again.
Here's to another fun filled year for you on IIS.

:thumbsup:

[beren]

:thumbsup: A gentleman indeed , congrats Dennis on your 2yrs of contribution to the site, always look forward to your thoughtful and innovative input here which is always delivered in a humble and helpful way :)

[jjjnettie]

Congratulations Dennis.
Doesn't time fly when your having fun.

[GrahamL]

Thats great dennis , I havn't been up there for many years .
Did they take the kids for a walk over to the stinson site ?
http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/research/stinson.asp

[Dennis]

:rofl: :rofl: Thanks Steve, but I'm as frail and fallible as the next person! I was one of the, ahem, older generation who felt some disappointment, almost bordering on resentment, when the kids tumbled out of their transport and exploded onto the campsite destroying the quietude!

In the end, I decided to deal with the reality of our shared world and find a compromise, rather than retreat into the memory of the lost tranquility and contribute to the tense atmosphere.

Saturn and the Moon did the rest! The cosmos sure is a great counselor and wise teacher. :thumbsup:

Cheers

Dennis